In the past, refrigerated mixing and dispensing machines were bulky due to the fact that the drive train for the machine was offset from the drive shaft of the motor. These drive trains usually utilize belt drives which result in power loss, slippage and inefficient use of space. In addition many prior refrigerated mixing and dispensing machines have the food product fed to a dasher assembly with erratic performance and dispensing. When equipped with a pump, existing refrigerated mixing and dispensing machines are frequently difficult to dissemble and clean.
Another existing problem for prior refrigerator mixing and dispensing machines is the inability of the dasher blade assembly to keep the mix from freezing on the interior wall of the freezing cylinder thereby causing inefficient heat transfer. Most of these machines have fixed blades that maintain a constant pressure and present wear problems. Other approaches have been to create a motor-gear driven system which avoid shaft and clutch assemblies thus affording elimination of problems associated with offset belt drives such as power loss, slippage and inefficient use of space. All of these mechanical approaches are subject to wear and generally do not present a simple to remove apparatus for inspection and cleaning.
Independent of the dispensing mixing refrigerated machines, the dispensing of soft frozen food products frequently results in nonuniformity of viscosity of the dispensed product. The dispensing apparatus of the prior art fails to dispense uniformly chilled flowable food product, for example, when the product valve is initially opened, the first dispensed product is of a warmer temperature than the remainder of the product, producing a melted product which is not desirable. Substantial food product waste is created by these dispensing apparatus since the initial dispensing food product must be caught separately and discarded due to the nonuniformity of temperature and viscosity.
Flowable food dispensing problems relating to thermodynamics have also been encountered by confectionery dispensers as well wherein the viscosity or flowability of the produce is dependent upon the temperature. Chilled confectionery dispensers operate under conditions very close to safety limits of solidification temperatures. Various attempts have been made in resolving these problems, for example, through the use of nozzle assemblies with the nozzle assembly being insulated from surrounding components and having portions which are heat controllable in order to accommodate the sensitive thermal limitations in confectionery dispensing.
Similarly, dispensing of uniform viscosity chilled food products requires careful control of the thermodynamics of the apparatus. The key for dispensing uniformly chilled flowable food products utilizing a dispensing assembly of a simple design has resulted in the present invention wherein the principle object is to provide a new apparatus for cooling and dispensing uniformly chilled flowable food products through a dispensing tube extrusion head past a heat sink extrusion head projection for release of the uniformly chilled product. The apparatus utilizes simple chilled gas pressure as a driving force for extrusion thus eliminating the need or the problems associated with pumps, gear drive motors, shafts, clutch assemblies and the like.